“In an increasingly urbanized world, global sustainability in the context of a changing climate will depend on achieving sustainable and climate resilient cities,” the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says today (28 March 2012).Cities are increasingly experiencing the disruptive and costly impacts of changes in the frequency and/or severity of weather extremes. Responding to the trends, city officials are engaging their citizens in efforts to build more resilient, better prepared and more sustainable communities. On Saturday the City of Tucson, Arizona, is bringing its citizens together to discuss the challenges climate change poses the city and the opportunities to respond. At the event, WWF will launch its Earth Hour City Challenge to encourage cities across the country to similarly engage their citizens around climate impacts and preparedness.

From the Eiffel Tower in Paris to the Empire State Building in New York City, the world’s tallest building the Burj Khalifa to the Leaning Tower in Pisa in Italy – at 8:30PM on March 31, the most visually captivating icons will go dark for Earth Hour 2012.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration today (23 January 2011) released its Annual Energy Outlook 2012, with projections of U.S. carbon emissions from fossil fuel use through 2035. EIA projects that U.S. emissions in 2020 will be 7.5% below 2005 levels, far short of the 17% reduction the U.S. committed to in January 2010 under the Copenhagen Accord of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

NASA yesterday (19 January 2012) released data showing that last year temperatures in the Arctic rose beyond the record established in 2010 -- setting a new record for 2011. News of the record Arctic temperatures follows a series of alarming developments related to the Arctic in recent months.

Yesterday evening (14 December 2011) Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (Democrat, Rhode Island) and Al Franken (Democrat, Minnesota) spent an hour on the floor of the U.S. Senate repudiating climate change denialists and arguing for serious U.S. action on climate chhange. We provide the video and transcript.

After two weeks of sparring and a day-long extension, governments once again failed today to provide the inspiration and ambition to tackle climate change and provide hope for hundreds of millions around the world who suffer and will continue to suffer from climate-related impacts. Governments reached a weak agreement that established a Green Climate Fund with little money, postponed major decisions on the content of the Kyoto Protocol, and made an unclear commitment to a global agreement from 2020 that could leave us legally bound to 4 degrees of global warming.

It is two weeks into the 17th annual meeting of the parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change in Durban, and delegates are struggling to reach an agreement during the meeting's final hours. Meanwhile, greenhouse gas emissions are rising and from the Arctic to the Antarctic, evidence is mounting that we are disrupting the planet's climate. U.S. folksingers Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie remind us in their song "Quite Early Morning" (1975) to remain hopeful and to soldier on.

Brazil's Senate voted on Wednesday (7 December 2011) to make changes to the country's forest law. If approved by Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, the law would threaten an area larger than the state of Texas -- and one of the world's treasured natural areas. The consequences would be felt all over the world, as a significant amount of CO2 could be released to the atmosphere. Brazil's ambitious efforts to slow climate change by reducing its greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation would be severely undermined. Sign our petition and join more than 1.5 million Brazilians in urging Brazil's President to veto the bill.

Durban, South Africa: Government leaders are still not seeing the big picture—we are here to address catastrophic climate change, WWF said today ahead of the closing of the climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa.